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Tactical Analysis: How can Manchester United beat West Ham United

Manchester United are into the final two games of the season. West Ham’s form is good scoring 12 goals scored in their previous five matches. This can be troublesome for United. Here we briefly describe how United can outclass their former manager David Moyes.

Under Moyes, West Ham have started all of their matches with a 4-2-3-1 counter-attacking system from which notably Michael Antonio has cherished his opportunities to run at teams on the counter with his blistering pace or getting in behind defenders and scoring against the run of play. In-form Tomas Succek, Jarred Bowen and Declan Rice have the ability to run West Hams midfield and wing play perfectly and have proved it against the big teams time and time again and against United itself when The Hammers beat them fair and square by a margin of 2 goals to nil courtesy of a magnificent Aaron Cresswell freekick, who would also be looking to overlap time and time again and whip crosses in.

In a 4-2-3-1 formation with the main emphasis for the midfielders being on getting the ball back quickly, Ole’s 4-3-3 system which has proved to be so effective for this in-form unbeaten United team in the premier league post-project restart might turn out to not be a viable option as Ole will be running the risk of getting suffocated in midfield due to West Ham’s David Moyes opting for midfielder superiority over attacking prowess.

Typically in this situation, Ole would have preferred to go for a back 3 in a 3-5-2 formation but with Eric Bailly and Luke Shaw who was deployed as an LCB in the absence of Bailly both looking to be out of contention, a 3-5-2 formation is not something Ole would be looking at without fully fit defenders. He could, however, try to look towards deploying a 4-4-2 formation which he used at Molde and worked out most of the times, but again Ole would be running the risk of being outplayed in the midfield and in the final third should West Ham go in against the run of play or on the counter both constituting a majority of their traditional game plan.
The 4-4-2 hasn’t been used by Ole in his time at United either so he won’t be too keen on using a 4-4-2, a completely new formation either way.

This leaves Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his reds with the 4-2-3-1 formation something which is foolproof and has been tried and tested and has worked brilliantly since the start of the season. Ole’s reds though tired, were rested well in their FA Cup Semi-Final encounter against Chelsea and his primary starting eleven which has conjured a massive shot of confidence into the club will be ready to seal their UCL spot with Leicester possibly losing out on a top 4 berth.

Ole will be looking towards the danger men we have covered in our previous article and will make sure his players are ready for any sort of surprises from a confident high flying West Ham team. A 4-2-3-1 against a possible 4-2-3-1 clearly indicates a United win if Manchester United manage to outplay the opposition’s players in every department.

Manchester United are favorites to be heading into this fixture to be the victor and Ole’s Reds should be able to manage a convincing victory at Old Trafford.